Burmese government jails another DVB journalist

New York, February 1, 2010—The Burmese government should cease its campaign of intimidation and harassment against the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), an exile-run television news provider, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Over the past month, military-controlled courts in Burma have
sentenced two undercover DVB reporters to punitive prison terms over their
reporting. On January 27, a special court attached to Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison sentenced
DVB reporter Ngwe Soe Lin, also known as Tun Kyaw, to 13 years in prison on
charges related to the vague and draconian Electronics and Immigration Acts, according
to a DVB statement posted on their Web site. His conviction follows the 27-year
jail term handed down on December 30 to DVB reporter Hla
Hla Win, who was similarly charged under the Electronics Act.

Ngwe Soe Lin was first arrested on June 26, 2009, and was held in
detention until his conviction last week, DVB reported. Ngwe Soe Lin took video
footage of children orphaned by the 2008 Cyclone Nargis disaster for a
documentary titled “Orphans of Burma’s Cyclone,” which was recognized last year
with a Rory Peck Award for best documentary. When the award was announced in
November 2009, DVB said a video journalist who had worked on the film who they
identified as “T” had been imprisoned; his colleague, “Z” was in hiding, the
group said.

Many of DVB’s journalists have remained
anonymous due to fears that the authorities would extend their prison sentences
if it was discovered that they had sent news, pictures, and videos to news
outlets outside the country.

“While the world commends DVB reporter Ngwe Soe Lin for his courageous
and heartfelt reporting, Burma’s
military regime has sentenced him to prison on trumped-up charges,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s Southeast
Asia representative. “DVB’s undercover reporters have consistently
and courageously filled the news gaps created by government censors. They
should be allowed to do their work without fear of threat or reprisal.”

The ruling military junta has in recent years increasingly used the
Electronics Act, which broadly forbids the unauthorized
use of electronic media (including the Internet) to send information outside
the country, to intimidate and punish reporters who work for foreign and
exile-run news organizations. Hla Hla Win had covered various news
stories considered sensitive to the regime, including last year’s controversial
trial of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

As of December last year, DVB editors estimated that 14 of its
undercover reporters were being held in detention. With Ngwe Soe Lin’s conviction, DVB announced it would initiate a
campaign, in cooperation with press freedom groups including CPJ, for the
release of all its journalists now in detention.